Furnace for heating metal sheets.



I PATENTED MAY 26, 1903. J. STEPHENS, J. G. DANKS & J. BEATTY.

FURNACE FOR HEATING METAL SHEETS.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 30, 1901. RENEWED OUT. 30, 1902.

2 SHEET8-SHEET '1.

NO MODEL.

'No. 729,101. PATENTED MAY 26, 1903. J. STEPHENS, J. G. DANKS & R. J. BEATTY.

FURNACE FOR HEATING METAL SHEETS.

APPLICATION FILED mmao, 1901. nnmwnn 001. so, 1902.

3 SHEETS-SHEET ,2.

m: mmms Perms cu. Pmnmumo" WASHINGTON. n c

UNTTED STATES Patented May 26, 1903.

PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN STEPHENS, JOHN G. DANKS, AND ROSS J. BEAT'IY, OF MUNCIE,

INDIANA.

FURNACE FOR HEATING METAL SHEETS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 729,101, dated May 26, 1903.

Application filed March 30,1901. Renewed October 30, 1902. Serial No. 129,486. (No model.)

To ctZZ Lu/tom it may concern/.1,

Be it known that we, J OHN STEPHENS, J OHN G. DANKS, and Ross J. BEATTY, citizens of the United States, residing at Muncie, Delaware county, Indiana, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Furnaces for Heating Metal Sheets, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to that class of furnaces in which the materials to be heated are moved through the furnace in the process of heating. It is constructed especially for the purpose of so moving and heating metal sheets in the condition known as molded out or in a condition approximate to that;

The main feature of the invention lies in the special construction of the conveyer.

The invention is shown in the accompanying drawings, in which it is embodied in a furnace, and in which Figure 1 shows the furnace in side elevation. Fig. 2 shows a horizontal section. Fig.

3 shows the furnace in longitudinal section.

Fig. 4 is a cross-section of the furnace.

Our furnace is designed to be used in the manufacture of iron and steel and in connection with a new method of manufacture of such sheets and a new organization of apparatus in which the furnace is interposed between the roughing-mill or the hot or finishing mill and has in that organization a special function or efiect. It is necessary herein to describe only the furnace.

In the drawings, A shows the lower combustion or heating chamber, in which are circulating ordistributingports a,throughwhich the burning gases or products of combustion pass to the upper combustion or heating chamber B, in which the sheets or packs of sheets are exposed in their passage therethrough. Flues O are also shown through which the waste gases or products of combustion escape to the main lines D (one for convenience on each side) to the common stack E. In case gas be used as fuel burners may be located at points indicated by K, communicating with the chamber B through flues 0, these being placed alternately, as shown in Fig. 2.

The conveyer is shown more plainly in Fig. 3. It comprises an endless chain belt of any suitable construction composed oflinks adaptinclination is shown in Fig. 3.

ed to pass over sprocket-wheels G, one set at each end. Power is applied to thesprockets at one end from any suitable source, as bya belt (not shown) around pulley J. A clutch-operating lever I serves to connect and disconnect pulley J with shaftj, and thence the motion is transmitted through pulleys b, which are connected to each other by belts and are suitably geared to drive the wheels G. This conveyorchain H is thus drawn horizontally through openingsin the walls of the furnace, as shown in Fig. 3. The chains proper are protected from injurious heating by being incased in grooves or channels, as shown at Q in Fig. 4. Three of these chains are shown, although we do not limit ourselves to this number, and each chain passes through the furnace in its own separate channel, the walls of which" protect it from injury by the heat. In the bottom of the grooves may be placed a pipe through which water or other cooling liquid may be circulated. These protecting-channels are supported upon piers, as shown in Fig. 4. Upon the links are fixed fingers (I. These fingers are so set upon the links that when the chain is passed horizontally through the furnace the fingers are held in vertical position, and their ends are suitably formed to bear against and support the sheets or packs of sheets which rest upon them in their passage from the furnace. The fingers are made light, so as to readily acquire the temperature of the furnace, and their hearing ends are so small that they cover a very small amount of the surface of the sheets, and thereby no cool spots are left on the sheets to interfere with the finishing process to which the sheets are subjected after they leave the furnace. The sprocket-chain returns underneath on a line indicated by the dotted line between the wheels G and G at either end.

After the sheets have passed once through the furnace it is sometimes desirable to heat them again, and for this purpose a returnconveyer is provided. For this purpose an inclined chain conveyor is provided on one side of the furnace, as shown in Fig. 2. Its It is made,

preferably, of a light linked belt, with sprocket-wheels fitted to the links, and is sup- The sprocketported upon a suitable frame.

through the furnace is controlled by a lever L by means of any suitable mechanism.

In order suitably to heat the sheets under the conditions in which we use this burner, it is preferably made about fifty feet long.

We claim as our invention- A furnace for heating metal sheets co1nprising a heating-chamber, and endless conveyer arranged to travel through said chamher, said conveyer having fingers fixed to the links thereof and set so as to stand upright when Within the furnace, and fit upon their upper ends to sustain the sheets, all substantially as described.

In testimony whereof we affix our signa- 25 tnres in presence of two witnesses.

' JOHN STEPHENS.

JOHN G. DANKS. v ROSS J. BEA'ITY. Witnesses:

ORA G. NORTON, J. M. HELVIE. 

